Palynological investigations of Miocene deposits on the New Siberian Archipelago (USSR)

Abstract

New paleobotanical data (mainly palynological) are reported from Miocene beds of the New Siberian Islands. The palynoflora has a number of distinctive features: the presence of typical hypoarctic forms, the high content taxa representing dark coniferous assemblages and the considerable proportion of small-leaved forms. Floristic comparison with the paleofloras of the Beaufort Formation in arctic Canada allows interpretation of the evolution of the Arctic as a landscape region during Miocene-Pliocene time. This paper is a preliminary analysis of the mechanisms of arctic florogenesis. The model of an "adaptive landscape' is considered in relation to the active eustatic drying of polar shelves. -Author